COCOBOD denies giving farmers raw deal

COCOBOD has denied giving farmers a raw deal by maintaining the producer price index for the 2013/2014 crop season.

For the first time in nine years, COCOBOD maintained the producer price at GHc3,392 Cedis per metric tonne.

In an article, Kwadaso MP, Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto said this is not good enough. He argues that cocoa farmers deserve an increase in the producer price as a result of high inflation and deprecation of the Cedi.

But Corporate Affairs Manager for COCOBOD Noah Amenya said this is the best price COCOBOD can offer.

“Cote d’lvoire reduced its producer price however in Ghana the price was maintained and the price for light crop is the same as the one for the main crop so you could see that industry has to bend itself to be able to support the farmer in spite of the fact that international price is coming down.”

He added “to be able to do all this things and still give subsidy to fertilizer and still do mass spray for farmers then Cocobod is doing a lot.”

Mr Amenya said COCOBOD will not shortchange farmers as it considers the price on the world market and developments in other countries in fixing the producer price.